Don't show you're afraid. Don't be weak. If he moves forward, there is no one at her back any more; her smile slowly fades, but she doesn't let herself look down, doesn't let her shoulders draw in or her posture stiffen. Her hands stay loose and visible in her lap, still over the comb, taking great care not to fidget, nor to lean away from his hissed anger.
"I envy you very much," she says, simply. "What you describe sounds wonderful. A much better way - it is very much what my lord wishes to bring to our people."
It much more closely resembles Marius's endgame than does, say, the dreams of freedom harbored by Anders. If her own desires align more with the latter than the former...she isn't going to argue with this man. He is shocked, still, by his change of circumstance - the points of contention between their worlds are not even relevant. He will see. There is no kindness in fighting him, or in forcing him to see what time will show him.
And she's uncomfortable, besides.
"I wish that I could have learned that way. That anyone could have. But there is no learning from corpses and burned books, and magic will not go simply go away because the world wishes it to." She warms, suddenly, reminded; it's genuine, but there is a strain under it, a conscious and continued effort to deescalate-- "They have books here, and teachers. For magic! I will follow them wherever they wish us to go, if I might have the opportunity to learn from such organisation, such history."
no subject
Don't show you're afraid. Don't be weak. If he moves forward, there is no one at her back any more; her smile slowly fades, but she doesn't let herself look down, doesn't let her shoulders draw in or her posture stiffen. Her hands stay loose and visible in her lap, still over the comb, taking great care not to fidget, nor to lean away from his hissed anger.
"I envy you very much," she says, simply. "What you describe sounds wonderful. A much better way - it is very much what my lord wishes to bring to our people."
It much more closely resembles Marius's endgame than does, say, the dreams of freedom harbored by Anders. If her own desires align more with the latter than the former...she isn't going to argue with this man. He is shocked, still, by his change of circumstance - the points of contention between their worlds are not even relevant. He will see. There is no kindness in fighting him, or in forcing him to see what time will show him.
And she's uncomfortable, besides.
"I wish that I could have learned that way. That anyone could have. But there is no learning from corpses and burned books, and magic will not go simply go away because the world wishes it to." She warms, suddenly, reminded; it's genuine, but there is a strain under it, a conscious and continued effort to deescalate-- "They have books here, and teachers. For magic! I will follow them wherever they wish us to go, if I might have the opportunity to learn from such organisation, such history."